Manipulator



March 30 1926.

B. F. FAUNCE MANIPULATOR Filed April 29, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 March 301926. 1,578,414

B. F. FAUNCE MANI PULATOR Filed April 29, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 lukInvenlor Patented -Mar. 30,

UNITED STATES 1,578,414 PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN r. IAUNOE, or wns'rmoNr BOROUGH, PENNSYLVANIA.

mxrumron.

= Application filed April 29, 1922. Serial No. 557,245.-

To all whom it may concem:

Be it known-that I, BENJAMIN F. FAUNCE,

' a citizen of the United States, and a resilarly adapted for handlingheated steel wheel blanks to and in a mill, and after they have beenoperated upon in said mill the 7 rolled blanks or wheels may then befurther A handled by the manipulator and placed elsewhere as desired. I

A wheel blank is preferably heated in a v furnace where it lies flat andit may be withdrawn therefrom by any suitable means and placed with itscentral perforation over a I mandrel carried'by one arm of the maniulator, and after'this is done a swinging arm is closed down'to hold theother end of the mandrel and the manipulator is then traversed towardsthe rolling mill and the wheel or blank turned from its flat orhorizontal position into a substantially vertical position, and thenceby means of'my apparatus is placed in the mill and held against theforming rolls thereof and rolled or formed while rotating with or on themandrel'of the manipulator. After this is done the wheel or blank iswithdrawn from the mill and placed elsewhere by the mani ulator and theapparatus is then ready or a repetition of the operation.

.My manipulator holds the blank in a mandrel inserted in the centralperforation I thereof, and in addition to handling the blank into andout of the mill it also serves another very useful purpose in holding itin the mill while the rolling operation proceeds,

,. and this obviates the necessity of any other and prior customarymeans of holding blanks in the mill. My apparatus therefore servesvarious purposes and consequently facilitates the operation of formingwheels and similar annular bodie's.

The arms which carry the mandrel may fit the ends of the same tightly sothat the arms are provided with bushings or bear ings forthe ends of themandrel in which it may rotate, and this thereby prevents unnecessaryrotation of the hot blank on the mandrel, which might distort it.

In order to guide the ap aratus during rolling in the wheel mill, t emanipulator arms which carry the blank are guided on the head-blocks ofthe mill during the rolling process, so that the blank will be accu'mandrel will not turn, but preferably the ra-tely presented to therolls of the mill for roper operation, and these head-blocks may eadjusted in various directions by liners or otherwise to suit the workto be done. As, during the process ofrolling the wheel blank becomeslarger, its axis necessarily recedes from the back or tread roll, whichtherefore necessitates the retreat of the manipulator, which occursautomatically, as the apparatus ismounted on a wheeled truck and mayreadily retreat from or advance to the mill as necessary. After thewheel is rolled, while being rotatably held by the manipulator, and isstill hot, it is taken to the .conmg press for shaping the web into theusual standard form, and as the coning press operates when the wheel isin a horizontal plane my manipulator turns the wheel'into that positionbefore delivery to the coning press or to the carrier which delivers itthereto. I My manipulator facilitates production and also obviates thehot and laborious work of inserting a mandrel intothe wheel perforationby hand. and it also avoids the necessity of placing the mandrel caps orbearings on the mandrel by. hand as previously customary.

In addition to this the Wheel or blank handled by my manipulator will befree from injury or indentationscaused by the prior necessary grippingof power charging machines or other unnecessary handling by othermethods, and the rolled wheel will also be preserved from thedeformations or indentations caused by bumping the same against parts ofthe mill or housings when it is withdrawn by the methods previouslycustomary.

Having thus given a general description of my invention, I will now, inorder to make the matter more clear, refer to the annexed two sheets ofdrawings, which form part of this specification.- and' in' which likecharacters refer to like parts.

Figure 1 is a top plan view of m manipulator and a portion of a wheel mi1 to show the application of my invention; Figure 2 is a side elevationwith a portion of the wheel mill in dotted lines; Figure 3 is a rear endelevation; Figure 4 is a side elevation of my manipulator similar toFigure 2, but showing the wheel clamping arms or tongs rotated a quarterof a revolution with the ivoted swing arm raised and the wheel lank inposit-ion on the receiving arm; Figure 5 is a longitudinal sectionalplan throng I my manipulator taken on the line VV of Figure 4; Figure 6is a front elevation of a portion of the supporting frame of my machine; Figure 7 is a detail sectional elevation, on a larger scale, ofthe end of one of the receiving arms taken on the line VII-VII of Figure8, and Figure 8 is a detail sectional elevation also drawn on a largerscale through the end of the receiving arms, mandrel and central portionof the wheel or blank.

Referring now to the characters of refer-- ence on the drawings :1 isthe base plate of the manipulator, 2 is the upper supporting framethereof which is mounted on the base plate as shown, 3 are'the trackwheels, the axles of which are journaled in the supporting frame 2. Alarge journal bearing 4 is provided in the upper part of the apparatusto receive the rotatable shaft 5, which shaft is provided with a reducedrear end portion I 6. A supporting fork 7 1s mounted on and keyed to theshaft 6 and is provided with smaller journal bearings 8 in its endportions, in which the cylinder 9 is mounted by means of its trunnions10 so that it can swing slightly therein. Fluid pressure connections 11connect fluid under pressure to the cylinder 9 and these are joined to acontrol valve and to any suitable source of fluid under pressure,whereby the piston of the cylinder may be moved backward and forward andthe piston rod will be moved correspondingly. The piston rod 12 ispivoted at its outer end 13 to the swinging arm 14 as shown, and thisarm is therefore adapted to swing to an open position as, illustrated inFigure 4, or to a closed position as shown in Figure 1 with respect tothe other arm 49. The pivot bolt on which it swings is 15 and thispasses through holes in the ears 16 of the integral laterally extendingportions of the shaft 5, which shaft also has the longitudinallyprojecting arm 49 extending integrally therefrom. The arm 49 is mountedand secured on or made as an integral part of the shaft 5, and this armand shaft are ada ted to be rotated as will be hereinafter described,and while this is done the swinging arm 14 will revolve about the same""is. Cyl ndrical openings 17 are provided in the ends of the arms 14and 49 in which are mounted the bushings 18 provided with centralopenings 19 adapted toreceive the ends of the mandrel and allow the sameto rotate therein, these bushings being provided with flanged ends 20 asillustrated, and are secured to the ends of the arms by the bolts 21.The mandrel 22 is provided with a central portion, which may be made ofany size to correspond with the size of the o ening or perforation inthe,

ance to facilitate its introduction and withdrawal. Attached to orforming part of the frame is a socket or journal bearing 25 adapted toreceive the cylindrical portion or shaft 5 of the rotatable arm 49, and'26 are adjusting bolts adapted to adjust and limit the rotation of saidarm.

. Part of the shaft 5 is cylindrical as shown, but it has integrallyformed with it the laterally extending portions which have the ears orprojections 16 and these each have their outer surfaces 'tangent to thesemicylindrical portion of the shaft and are flat as shown, so that asthe shaft rotates one of flat portions referred to contacts with the endof the bolt 26 to limit the rotation of the shaft and the amount ofrotation may be slightly adjusted by screwing the bolt 26 in or out. Acylinder 27 is provided for rotating the arm 49 in one direction andanother cylinder 28 for rotating it in reverse direction. A connectingplunger 29 operates with its opposite ends in these cylinders, theplunger being provided with a groove or slide-way 30 adapted to receivethe roller 31 mounted on the stub shaft 32, which shaft is mounted inthe fork 7 with its axis eccentric with respect to the axis of rotationof the shaft 5 and the arm 49, and it thereby operates as a crank pin.As the plunger 29 is moved backward or forward in the cylinders 27 and28 the shaft 5 is turned thereby and this rotates the arm 49 and alsorevolves the arm 14 about the same axis. The cylinders 27 and 28 areprovided with pipe connections 33, which may be provided with anysuitable control valve and source of fluid under pressure. 34 is therear axle of the apparatus provided with a gear 35 mounted thereon, 36is a pinion mounted on the shaft 37 adapted to mesh with the gear 35 and38 is a gear on the other end of said shaft adapted to mesh with thepinion 39 mounted on the end of the shaft 40, which latter is mounted inthe bearings 41 and provided with a gear 42, which meshes with thepinion 43 mounted on the motor shaft 44 of the electric motor 45. Thisapparatus is thereby adapted to traverse the manipulator backward orforward on its track rails as illustrated.

As illustrated in full lines in Figure 1 and by dotted lines in Figure2, 46 is the tread roll of the wheel mill, 47 are the web rolls thereofand 48 is a portion of the frame work of the mill. 7

As viewed particularly in Figures 1 and 2, the ends of the arms 14 and49 are adapted to rest between the head-blocks of the mill in order toproperly maintain the position of the blank or Wheel during the rol--'ing, and as the blank increases in diameter the arms 14 and 49,which'carry the mandrel mounted near their ends, may be automatically orotherwise retracted while slidably resting between said head blocks orbetween the liners thereof.

The head-blocks of the mill, as illustrated in dotted lines in Figure 2,are provided with a bottom liner 51 and a top liner 52, which are seatedon and secured to the headblocks of the mill frame, and these may be ofany thicknesses to suit the work to be done, and their distance apart isslightly greater than the thicknesses of the ends of the arms 14 and 49,which are inserted between them. I prefer to arrange the arms so thatwhen the mill is running and the wheel is being rolled, the ends of'thearms will contact with the upper liner 52 to hold the wheel in position,as during its rotation the wheel when being rolled has a tendency tolift upwardly, and this is resisted by contact with the top liner 52with the ends of the arms 14 and 49. When rolling, the

wheel preferably turns in an anti-clockwise direction as viewed inFigure 2, while the tread roll rotates in a clockwise direction.

In order to slightly adjust the heights of the arms 14 and 49, I provideadjusting screws 50, whereby the supports of the machine and the armsmaybe raised or lowered with respect to the forward wheels 3 and thetrack, and this will also allow for any minor vertical adjustmentsrequired in the arms 14 and 49 and the mandrel 22 which they carry tosuit the work to be done.

It should be noted that the arm 14 may be moved to closed or openposition with relation to the other arm 49, and it may hold or releaseone end of the mandrel, and both it and the other arm 49 when closed maybe turned around an axis extending in the general direction of theirlengths in order to. partially rotate the wheel blank from asubstantially horizontal to a generally vertical position. andvice-versa.

The operation of my apparatus is as follows :-A hot wheel blank readyfor rolling in the wheel mill may be placed on the mandrel 22 by afurnace drawing machine or otherwise, when the arms are in the positionillustrated in Figure 4, whereupon the arm 14 is caused to swing byadmission of fluid to the rear pipe 11, thereby swinging this arm andthus placing its bushing 18 over one of the reduced ends 23 of. themandrel. I

Fluid under pressure is then admitted to the cylinder 28 and the otherfluid allowed to escape from the cylinder 27, which rotates the shaft 5and the arm 49 and the arm 14 also revolves around the axis'of the shaft5, and while the blank assumes an upright or approximately verticalposition the motor 45 is started in theproper direction, traverses themanipulator on its track, and places the wheel in the wheel-mill againstthe tread roll 46 while the web-rolls are in open position. The webrolls are then projected against it while rotating, and the variousrolls then roll the blank while it is be-. ing held by the manipulator,and as this is whereupon the movement of the plunger 29 in areverse-direction is accomplished by the action of the cylinders 28 and27, the wheel thereby turned to horizontal position, and

' the arm 14 is swung to open osition by the reverse action of the cyliner 9 and the wheel is delivered to a carrier, which delivers it to theconing press or elsewhere for finishing or otherwise.

Although I have shown and described my invention in considerable detail,I do not wish to be limited to the exact and specific details thereof,as shown and described, but may use such modifications in, substitutionsfor, or equivalentsthereof as are embraced.

within the scope of my invention, or aspointed out in the claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is 1. In a manipulator, a pair of arms, means forrelatively opening and closing the same, means for turning them on anaxis extending in the general direction of their lengths when closed,and means mounted near the ends' of said arms for rotatably holding ablank.

2. A manipulator, mounted on a carriage adapted to be moved backward orforward, a rotatable arm mounted on said carriage, a swinging armpivotally connected with said rotating arm, means for swinging saidlatter arm and for simultaneously turning both of said arms, said armsbeing provided at their outer ends with a mandrel adapted to rotatablyhold a blank.

5. In a manipulator, a pair of arms, means for turning the same about anaxis extending in the general direction of their lengths when closed,means for relatively opening and closing said arms, and a mandrelmounted in the outer ends of said arms.

6. In a manipulator, a pair of arms, means' for turning the same aboutan axis extending in the general direction of their lengths whenclosed,' means for relatively opening and closing said arms, and amandrel rotatably mounted in bearings near the outer ends of said arms.I

7. A manipulator, comprising a carriage, means for moving thesamebackward or forward, an arm rotatably mounted on said carriage, aswinging arm pivoted thereto. openings in the ends of said arms, and amandrel rotatably mountedin said openings.

8. A manipulator, comprising a carriage. means for moving the samebackward or forward, an arm rotatably mounted on said carriage, aswinging arm pivoted thereto, openings in the ends of said arms, amandrel rotatably mounted in said openings, and means for simultaneouslyturning said arms.

9. A manipulator, comprising a carriage, means for moving same backwardor forward, an arm rotatably mounted in said carriage, a swingin armpivoted thereto, said rotatable arm eing provided with a shaft, a yokesecured to said shaft and pro-- vided with a crank pin eccentricallylocated with respect thereto, a pressure plunger adapted to partiallyrotate said shaft by said crank pin, openings in the ends of said arms,and a mandrel adapted to be rotatably mounted therein.

10. In a manipulator, a carriage, a'pair of arms mounted thereon, andpivotally connected to each other, means for relatively opening orclosing said arms, and for turning them around an axis extending in thegeneral direction of their lengths when closed and a mandrel rotatablymounted near the ends of saidarms.

11. In a manipulator, a carriage, a pair of arms mounted thereon andpivotally connected to each other, means for relatively opening andclosing said arms, openings in the ends of said arms, a mandrelrotatably mounted in said openings, and means for turning said armsaround an axis extendmg in the general direction of their lengths whenclose 12. In a manipulator, a carria e, means for moving said carriagebackwar and forward, a pair of arms mounted thereon and plvotallconnected to each other, means for relative y opening or closing saidarms, perforations in the ends of said arms, a mandrel rotatably mountedin said perforations adapted to receive and hold a wheel blank thereonbetween said arms, and means for turning said arms around an axisextending in the general direction of their lengths.

13. The combination with a wheel mill,'ot a manipulator provided with apair of arms pivotally connected to be relatively opened.

and closed, a mandrel rotatably mounted near the ends of said arms,adapted to receive a wheel blank provided with a central perforation,and head-block guides on said mill adapted to hold said arms in positiondesired,

14. The combination with a wheel mill, of a manipulator provided with apair of arms adapted to be relatively opened and closed. a mandrelrotatably mounted near the ends of said arms, adapted to hold a wheelblank provided with a central perforation, and head-block guides on saidmill ada ted to hold said arms at the desired leve while allowing thearms holding the blank to retreat while rolling.

15. The combination with a wheel mill, of a manipulator provided with apair of arms adapted to be relatively opened and closed and turned on anaxis extending in the general direction of their lengths when closed, amandrel rotatably mounted in the ends of said arms, adapted to hold awheel blank mounted with its central perforation over said mandrel,head-blocks on said mill provided with liners of suitable thicknessesadapted to hold and guide the ends of said arms during the rolling ofthe blank.

16. The combination with a wheel mill, of a manipulator provided with apair of arms adapted to be relatively opened and closed and turned on anaxis extending in the general direction of their lengths when closed, amandrel rotatably mounted in the ends of said arms, adapted to rotatablyhold a wheel blank, head-blocks on said mill pr0- vided with liners ofsuitable thicknesses adapted to hold and guide the ends of said arms atthe level desired during the rolling I signature.

BENJAMIN F. FAUNCE.

